[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[October 29, 1998]
[Pages 1911-1913]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception for Representative Peter Deutsch in Palm Beach
October 29, 1998

    Thank you very much, Doctor. Thank you for your remarks--and Peter 
and Lori, and your families and your extended family here. Let me say at 
the outset that I had two thoughts when Peter was speaking--one sort of 
craven thought. I thought, I wish I had taped that, and the next time I 
really need a tough vote for him, I will play it back. [Laughter] My 
more noble thought was--[laughter]--was that, I was sitting there 
looking at Peter and thinking about the times we spent together, the 
times Lori used to go jogging with me before I hurt my leg. Now I use it 
as an excuse not to be humiliated. [Laughter] And I was thinking about 
the times we spent together, and I was thinking how fortunate our 
country is that people like him will do the work that he does. And we 
are very fortunate.
    You know, this has been a pretty good 6 years for the economy, and 
if Peter Deutsch hadn't been in Congress, he would have made a lot of 
money in this economy. [Laughter] He would have done well in this 
economy. And our country is blessed by that.
    Let me just be very brief here. Today I came to Florida with Hillary 
to see the space shuttle and to see a man who has been a very good 
personal friend of mine and of my wife's, John Glenn, go into space at 
the age of 77. It was a thrilling experience. I'm sure all of you who 
either saw it from a distance or saw it on television felt the same way. 
And a lot of people came up to me and said, ``Gosh, you look tired.'' 
And that's because I still haven't recovered from what I was doing last 
week at this time, which was finally announcing the end of 9 days of 
talks on the Middle East peace process, which culminated in a 30-
something hour marathon. I was up 39 hours in a row, and I didn't even 
do that in college. [Laughter] I didn't know I had it in me at my old 
age and in my declining years. But anyway, I made it.
    I say that because those two events, this space shuttle with John 
Glenn on it and that peace process, embody so much of what I've tried to 
do as President and so much about what I think is best in our country, 
the idea of giving everybody an opportunity to go as far as his or her 
dreams will carry them, the idea of being adventurous in all and daring 
to change and being willing to take a risk and always thinking about the 
future.
    One of you who went through the line and had your picture taken with 
me tonight quoted back my 1992 campaign theme: Don't stop thinking about 
tomorrow. That's what that space program is all about. And then the 
peace process embodied not only the peace we would like to bring to the 
world but the peace we would like to bring to our own country, how 
strongly and earnestly we wish to reach across all the lines that divide 
us here to make one America and then to bring that spirit of 
reconciliation to the rest of the world in freedom, in democracy.

[[Page 1912]]

    And when I became President I really set out to create a country for 
the 21st century where everyone who would work for it could have 
opportunity, where we would be one community across all our diversity, 
and where we would still be the world's leading force for peace and 
freedom and prosperity, not just for ourselves but for others as well.
    None of the things that I have done that required any act from 
Congress would have been possible without people like Peter. And when 
things go well, the President gets the credit. But very often there are 
so many others whose work is utterly indispensable. And I think you 
should know that.
    If we hadn't passed that economic plan in 1993, we wouldn't be here 
celebrating this today. If we hadn't passed the crime bill to give 
100,000 police to our streets and to finally take on the Brady bill 
issues and the assault weapons ban, we wouldn't be here celebrating the 
lowest crime rate in a generation today. So there are lots of things 
that he and others deserve credit for.
    In this last budget negotiation the reason we got, in a hostile 
Congress, the reason we got 100,000 teachers and after-school programs 
for kids in trouble and a big increase in our clean water plan and 
continued support to clean up the Florida Everglades and restore them 
was that the Congress stayed with me, the Democrats and our party, and 
we were reunited.
    And I want to thank Peter for having this PAC and for being willing 
to not only help himself but help like-minded people throughout the 
country, because this election Tuesday is no ordinary election. This 
election will have a lot to do with 21st century America. And the 
differences between the parties are quite profound.
    We don't believe that we--we waited 29 years for a surplus, and we 
do not believe we should spend it until we have saved Social Security 
for the 21st century. They disagree with that. Furthermore, I don't 
think we should do anything that gives the slightest signal of economic 
instability at a time when there's so much trouble in the rest of the 
world. And Florida depends upon trade, investment, and tourism to do 
well. You have a big interest in our doing the right thing by our 
economy and trying to stabilize the world economy.
    So that's something we believe. The other--the leadership of the 
other party disagrees with that. We believe that it's a good thing to 
have properly managed health care but that the management of a system 
should not overcome its purpose; and that people who are in health plans 
ought to have a right to see a specialist if the doctor says they should 
see one; that they ought to--if they get in an accident, they ought to 
go to the nearest emergency room, not one that's 20 miles away because 
it's covered; if they're in the middle of a pregnancy or a chemotherapy 
treatment, they ought not lose their doctor just because their employer 
changes health plans during that period. That's what we believe. And 
they disagree with us on this Patients' Bill of Rights. It's something 
that would affect well over 100 million Americans. It's a huge issue.
    We believe that our children should all have a chance to have a good 
education. That's why we fought for the 100,000 teachers. But we did not 
win the classrooms to teach them in. We also had a plan fully paid for 
in the balanced budget to help States build or repair 5,000 schools. No 
State in America needs that more than Florida. We disagree on that. They 
don't think we should be doing this in Washington. I think we should.
    So I could go through lots of other issues. We tried to raise the 
minimum wage because unemployment and inflation are low, and they didn't 
think we should, and they stopped us. We believe that we should act to 
protect our children from the dangers of tobacco, the number one public 
health problem for kids in America, and they stopped us. We believe we 
should pass campaign finance reform, and they stopped us. There is a 
huge choice.
    And you may have noticed in the press yesterday that in the last 2 
years, not unrelated to the bills that they defeated, they were 
successful in raising $100 million more than we were in the last 2 
years. But because of people like Peter and because of people like you, 
we are doing quite well in a blizzard of close races in which we're 
being outspent. So you have to understand that your being here, too, is 
an act of citizenship and that, if you weren't here doing this, that no 
matter how good our ideas are and no matter how big a majority there is 
in the country for our ideas, they wouldn't be heard by the voters.
    The last thing I want to ask you to do is to do everything you can 
between now and Tuesday to ask everyone with whom you come

[[Page 1913]]

in contact to go and vote. Everybody who felt patriotic when John Glenn 
went up in the spaceship today with his colleagues should carry that 
feeling through to Tuesday. Because the space program--that's the last 
thing I want to say--the space program is a product of a democratic 
system in which it was under complete assault when I became President. 
And the space program is exhibit A for the idea that Government can give 
you more at less cost. They're not spending much more money than they 
were the day I took office 6 years ago. Then, they were sending up two 
launches a year. Now they're sending eight launches a year at roughly 
half the cost per launch.
    I know it's important to Florida. So I ask you--thank you for your 
money, thank you for Peter Deutsch. Keep him in Congress as long as he 
wants to stay. Give him a promotion some day. But you just remember what 
I said. There's a huge difference in a very clear way about what kind of 
21st century America we're going to have. And you and everybody you 
touch between now and Tuesday needs to show up.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 7:03 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to Dr. Edward Dauer, event cochair, who introduced 
the President; and Lori Deutsch, wife of Representative Peter Deutsch. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.